When else can you ask the CEO, “Do these jeans make my butt look big?”
It has always been a good idea to send incentive travel participants home with a gift or two that helps make the memories last. Increasingly, program sponsors are turning the gift itself into an event during the trip. Whether it’s sunglasses, jeans, a watch or a custom handbag that recipients help design, these on-site events create buzz and often become one of the more memorable experiences of the trip.
“You feel pampered. You’re having a new experience,” says Brett Hatch, global manager of corporate gifts at Maui Jim. The manufacturer of premium sunglasses was among the first companies to send a team of “brand ambassadors” to a corporate event. Maui Jim caters to groups as small as 25 or as large as 5,000. The company brings dozens of styles to your event and participants can walk away with the pair that suits them best.
Smart CEOs and sales managers stick around throughout the event to greet and interact with each participant, Hatch says. “It’s almost like a team-building experience. You can thank each one of your top performers as you give them a gift. That small interaction means a lot, especially to millennials.”
Maui Jim can personalize glass cases, pouches or cleaning cloths with a company name, logo or event name.
A group’s demographics often impact the products that are used. If participants include baby boomers, Gen Xers and millennials, sunglasses or a selection of watches can cover the disparate tastes. If your program participants are fashion oriented, a pair of designer jeans from The Blues Jean Bar (bluesjeanbar.com) or a custom made leather handbag from Laudi Vidni (LaudiVidni.com) may be big hits.
Lauren Jackson, operations manager for events at The Blues Jean Bar, says the company can bring more than 1,000 pairs of pants to your international or North American event and set up a pop-up store on site. The pants can be customized with a corporate logo and you can even have a seamstress on site to hem the length.
The Blues Jean Bar offers designer brands and private label. Don’t have a blue jeans audience? The company can source everything from flip-flops to suits.
If you want to reward top-performing females or treat the wives of your top performers, Laudi Vidni (“individual” spelled backwards), a Chicago-based retailer of custom leather handbags, will set up shop at your event. Your participants can select from 20 different styles, 50 different leathers, eight linings and gold or silver hardware. Laudi Vidni co-founder and CEO Laura Kofoid says there are 60,000 possibilities in all.
“If you tell a woman you like her purse, she’ll say, ‘I just wish it had this or that.’ Now they can pick exactly what they want. We not only make the experience exquisite, we make what you end up with exquisite.”
Participants design the handbag they want and it is shipped to their home about three weeks later. Laudi Vidni initially staged events out of its Chicago store and quickly discovered the same concept could become a highlight of a corporate event. “We’ve overheard a number of people say, ‘This is the most fun I’ve had at an event,’ ” Kofoid says.
As much as she would like to corner the on-site gifting market, Adrienne Forest, vice president at Bulova, says the upside of having numerous players in the space is that corporate clients can vary the gifts they provide from year to year. She emphasizes it is important to do your due diligence to ensure the gift has high perceived value and the event itself is handled professionally.
Gift In Time ©
Bulova will bring the ideal assortment and quantities of watch styles based on your target demographic, budget and timing. On the day of the event, a Bulova representative is on-site to support the event from start to finish. This includes setting up a gifting table with the look and feel of the brand, assisting recipients in choosing a watch, conducting custom watch fittings and handling any fulfillment needs such as shipping back to the recipient’s home. For more information, contact Bulova Corporate Sales at 800-228-5682 or email CorporateSales@bulova.com.
Blues Jean Bar
The Blues Jean Bar features expert Jeantenders who have full product knowledge of every jean in inventory. They fit people into the perfect pair of jeans for their body type. With more than 20 brands of premium denim, The Blues Jean Bar has something for everyone. Set up comes complete with anywhere from 200 to 1,000 pairs of premium denim stacked in wooden bins, a bar in front, displays, mirrors, pop-up dressing rooms and as many jeantenders as you need to fit your group in a timely and efficient manner. Alternatives to jeans include Toms shoes and sunglasses. For more information, visit BluesJeanBar.com.
Made in shades
Maui Jim pioneered the on-site gifting event with custom fittings. Participants can find the style that is ideally suited for them and sponsoring companies can customize the glass case, pouch or cleaning cloth. Contact Maui Jim at 800-614-6790 or email corporatesales@mauijim.com.
The perfect bag
Participants select from 20 different handbag styles, 50 leathers and eight linings to create their ideal Laudi Vidni handbag. The finished product is sent to their home a few weeks later (LaudiVidni.com).
